Endure, Survive, and Fight for every second
by Xtrm-Dudemeister
Summary: No one survives life. That is true and will always be, especially in their world. Yet Ellie and Riley find their lives cut brutally short. For even though one knows death is around every corner, it is easy to forget. Now they must endure the pain, survive the horror and fight for every second they have left. An attempt to chronicle the events of Left Behind, contains spoilers.
1. Still no Roommate - 1

**Because everyone else is doing it - author's note. Not that I'm as much of an author as I am a fan writing fiction, I suppose.** **Anyways, The Last of Us left me speechless. I was almost sure I would never experience anything of that quality again. And then came Left Behind, which made everything better.**

**I decided to write about it. Just try my hand at a "novelization" of the DLC, since it is quite short. I will also try to bridge the gap in Ellie's story between the DLC and the main game, once I get there. It is quite different to write a story that already exists, and make your own with only a beginning and end to go on.**

**Hopefully someone likes this. I have put some thought into how I write Ellie, who is in my opinion one of gaming's most complicated characters. Writing teenage girls is damn hard though.**

**Rated T for language. Spoilers for the DLC ahead. And possibly bad grammar, since this is a fanfiction written by a non-english teenager. Thank you, and please enjoy. Oh, and one more thing - I deviate quite a lot from the DLC in terms of dialouge, and so on, so if you are looking for a word-by- word transcript, well, wrong place.**

* * *

Something hot caressed her throat. No, attacked it. _What?  
_Ellie let out a small scream, and shoved something heavy off of her. Her eyes flew open, and she sat up so quickly her head spun and her vision was filled with thick black spots. It didn't matter. Ellie knew what to do. She didn't have to see, only reach her hand under her pillow, searching for the cold, metallic wood she knew was there.  
Her fingers locked around the hilt of her knife – her knife by now, not her mother's – and sprung up from her bed. All in one and a half second, in which time her heart beat a dozen times.  
The Infected rolled around on the floor. And laughed. _What?  
_Ellie rubbed her eyes with her free hand, while the world stilled around her, no longer reeling. She looked to whoever sat laughing on the floor, and her mouth fell open. "_Riley?_" The room was dim, only lit by the distant glow of a lightpost from outside her window, and even that light was blurred by the hammering rain. Yet she had no trouble identifying the person on her floor. She knew that laugh by heart.  
Her friend raised a hand, still giggling, and holding onto her rear. "Hi Ellie. Ow…"  
"The hell? I thought I was bitten." Ellie wanted to ask a hundred questions and say a thousand things, yet those two were the only ones she were able to mold into proper words. Her vision was clear now, and she was no longer dizzy. She scanned the room anyway, just in case. Nothing.  
"I know, it…" Riley moaned, rubbing her hip. "It was kinda awesome. Ooh, I landed on my hip."  
Ellie stared at her, baffled, shocked, furious and a little bit happy. Because she was fully aware that this was no dream, neither a waking one or a sleeping one. Because she _had _dreamed of this moment before, several times. Not of it playing out like this, but still.  
Riley stood up, slowly. "Well?" she asked, tentatively, giving Ellie a questioning look. "You're not going to kill me, are you?"  
Ellie looked down at her hand, befuddled. She was holding her knife, as if prepared to assault an attacker at any moment. It was instinct, an act that she had barely noticed. She quickly drew her arm back. "I _would _like to, you know that?" Ellie folded her knife, meeting her former best friend's gaze. She tried to look really really angry. "I haven't seen you…" she shook her head. "In I don't even know how long." In reality she'd been counting the days, but there was no way in hell Riley would ever know that.  
"Forty-five days." Riley said, having the decency to look somewhat ashamed. "Well, forty-six, technically." She threw both arms to her sides. "Wanna know what I've been up to?"  
Ellie nearly laughed. Instead it became somewhat of a snort. "You can't jus-"  
Riley took a step towards her, hand reaching out. "Okay, I left and you're mad, I get it."  
"Hell yeah I'm mad!" Ellie stepped backwards, away from Riley. "You expect some sort of warm welcome? Then you're gonna be fucking dissapointed, alright?" Riley stilled, her eyes distant and thoughtful, contemplating her next action, for once. In truth, Ellie didn't know what to think. Some of her many questions began to take shape in her head, thankfully in the form of words. _Will you stay? Where were you? What _have _you been up to?  
_Riley answered all of those with a single movement, unclasping a necklace Ellie had not noticed. Surprising, since she tended to notice most things about Riley. She really had been gone a long time. And now this. "Here."  
Ellie took the dog-tag from her, measuring it in her hand. It was larger than a coin, but thinner. It was engraved with some numbers and a name. Riley Abel. On the back was a familiar logo. An emblem dear to Riley and mostly meaningless to Ellie. A double F, important enough for Riley that Ellie had been left behind while she went to look for the light. That was, after all, what Ellie had figured, yet it was different to _know._ "You've gotta be kidding me…" That was all she was able to say. That meant… it meant…  
"Still got it up, huh?" Ellie turned towards the clearly amused voice, seeing Riley. She was holding her picture. _Their _picture, taken with an old and nearly broken camera. "Hey, don't…" Ellie paused.  
"What? Touch that?" Riley leered. "You really are a sentimental one, you know that?" She left the picture. Ellie was somewhat thankful. That picture had been her best friend for forty-five days. She'd sobbed while holding it. She'd talked to it. It felt pathetic now. Riley turned towards her bed, the one Ellie had been guarding like a hawk. Anytime she'd been dealt a roommate she'd made short work of them. By now no one wanted to share a room with her, which had suited Ellie just fine. Until now. "Still no roommate?"  
_I don't want a roommate. I want you.  
_"Riley-" Ellie sighed, deciding to get it over with. "Why are you here?"  
Riley stilled, and nodded, as if she knew the question had to be asked, even though it was not pleasant. "To say hi to my best friend?" She looked at her, her expression a mixture of curiosity and nervousness.  
Ellie snorted. "You told me I was a worthless piece of shit, remember?"  
"Yeah." Riley averted her eyes, as if she found the carpet very interesting. She looked sad, for once. Ellie nearly apologized, until she remembered how sad she'd been herself. "Yeah, I remember." Riley swallowed. "And I'm here because I got something to show you. To make up for it. So come on."  
_What? _Ellie frowned. "Now?" she asked, ridiculed. It was… she looked towards the window. It was to be morning soon. Riley nodded. "But I have military drills." She handed back the dog-tag, not wanting to touch it anymore. "You know, where we learn how to kill Fireflies? How did you even get in here?"  
"The power of love?" Riley smirked. "Get some pants on and let's go." Ellie caught the pair she threw her, staring at the floor. Riley was already by the door, waiting. "There are no soldiers on the entire floor. Trust me." She opened the door, and the familiar warm light of the hallway flooded part of the room.  
"I do," said Ellie. "And I'm so stupid for it." She got dressed slowly, silently hoping for Riley to deny her words. Her switchblade she put in her back pocket, and her backpack was slung lazily over one shoulder.  
Riley looked almost bored with her reaction. "Oh, come on. When have we ever gotten into trouble?"


	2. What took you so long? - 2

Ellie hopped down the broken window, panting. The room was covered in shadows, and utterly abandoned, save for the two girls now standing in it. It had belonged to a teenager once. There were faded carpets on the battered floor, and the walls were covered in old useless posters. A ruined bed stood by one wall, and a broken TV by the other.  
Pale light briefly filled the room, before the car moved on. _Yeah, when have we ever gotten in trouble, huh? What could possibly go wrong? You worry too much. _Riley had said all that and more on the way over there, leaping over ravines between rooftops and retaining their fragile balance on slippery tiles in the dark night.  
Ellie silently cursed her friend. Silently despised her for dragging her along. Silently despised her for leaving, and rendering her a pathetic mess for nearly two weeks.  
"That was close," said Riley, shaking some water off of her hands. The rain was relentless, and had soaked them both by now. It was quite cold, even though it was summer. "You were quite fast there. Good job." Riley smirked.  
Ellie wanted to scream at her. She was just a stupid girl chasing fireflies. She did not understand what was on the line, she never had. Not even now, when she would be shot dead if the military spotted her.  
"Yeah," Ellie panted, and tried to will the water off of her body. It did not work. "Thanks." She wanted to say more, but she did not want to more. Riley nodded.  
"Come on now. You're gonna dig this."  
"Sure." Ellie shook her head, watching drops of rain scatter across the wooden floor. Unique, that was the name of the girl who once lived in that room. There had been a diary and some useless belongings left behind the first time she and riley climbed in one of the broken windows. When they discovered the first safe gateway into their mall. Unique was not truly Unique; she worried only about boys and clothes, just as they'd heard every other girl did back then. She and Riley had made fun of her since the first time they saw a lipstick mark on one of the posters. They had both kissed the same poster themselves, giggling like stupid children. Yet Ellie was sure they both had a strange sort of love for the girl too.  
Ellie followed her friend through the many doors of the house. Unique had been born in a big family.  
"So, uh…" Riley rubbed her forehead. "Who do you hang out with these days?"  
"Does it matter?"  
"It matters to me." Riley pretended to look around the room, but her attention was placed firmly on Ellie. _Who do you think I hang out with?  
_"No one, really."  
Riley frowned, unable to understand how someone could _not _be able to be friends with everyone they wanted, no matter what. "What about Tino and the guys?"  
"Those are your friends." Riley stepped up to the familiar gaping hole in the floor, pressing herself against the wall. She balanced herself carefully, and shifted across the little strip of floor left, clinging to the blue wallpaper.  
"But you talk to them, right?"  
"I guess." Ellie followed her former best friends lead. _Former. Don't forget that Ellie.  
_She was glad Riley would not stick around school, in a way. 'Tino and the guys' were Ellie's worst enemies by now. She kinda deserved their hatred, too. She was glad Riley would not hear that.  
The silence accompanied them for a long time. Riley tried to initiate several conversations, but ultimately failed every time. Ellie did not feel sorry at all. _She deserves all she gets. Forty-six days…  
_A Firefly logo emblazoned upon a wall made her far too curious to abstain from conversations, though. 'Look for the light,' said the words beneath the double F's.  
Ellie studied it while Riley moved the couch they had used to block the hole in the wall. "So have you 'found the light' or what?"  
"Oh, hur-di-durr." Riley shook her head, grinning.  
"Well, how did you fond them? The Fireflies."  
"I followed them. Trevor, specifically. The guy you bit, and stole his gun. You remember?"  
"Yeah, I remember. His gloves tasted like shit." Ellie tilted her head, watching Riley struggle with the rotten sofa.  
"Well, I saw him walking down the street, and I tailed him into an alley. A whole bunch of Fireflies ambushed me." Riley grunted as she laid all her weight against the couch. Ellie yawned, and leaned against the wall. Her friend sent her a warning glance. Whatever threat Riley attempted to convey with it was utterly false, though, Ellie knew that. And Riley was not so stupid as to bring it up. Ellie was glad for it. She'd wanted to fight mere moments before, but not now. No good would come of it.  
"And you weren't scared?"  
"Who says I wasn't?" Riley gave a final, hard shove, and the couch moved out of the way. _Your voice. And you're never afraid. _"I actually thought Marlene was gonna kill me this time, when they brought me to her. Instead she…" Riley caught her breath. The sofa was damn heavy, Ellie knew that. "She just said: 'What took you so long?" Riley snorted, as if in disbelief. "She'd been expecting me the whole time."  
Ellie nodded, while Riley sat down for a bit. When she got up, Ellie had decided she'd been enough of a dick for now. She did not forgive her friend for anything, nor did she accept whatever bullshit excuse she would soon come up with for leaving and saying what she said, but in truth she was too happy to be joking with her best friend again to stay mad for much longer.  
The abandoned buildings flew by. Ellie relaxed, and escaped into the pleasant void of easiness that came with their conversations. She had missed that. Green vines covered fainted and crackled paint, and there was dirt everywhere. Her skin was still glistening, as was Riley's. Their flashlights made bright circles in the remnants left behind by mankind of old. Their footsteps seemed to echo, in some way.  
The two friends walked, talked and laughed, crawling underneath narrow holes and balancing on top of old planks. They only tensed upon hearing a distant, yet familiar mechanincal voice, telling them all that the Quarantine Zone was free of any infections. The voice was too far away and too muffled by the rain to her the womans words exactly, but they both knew the words by heart.  
It went off as people were waking up, Ellie knew. That meant she only had so much time before she had to go back, unless she wanted to be thrown out of the school. _Which might not be so bad... _She looked at Riley. For now she had to remember to be pissed, but perhaps later she could talk. Perhaps Ellie could join her friend once she left.  
"Bullshit," Riley said, leaving Ellie confused. Had she read her thoughts? "People are getting Infected all the time. _Oh, that.  
_"They just hide it?" Riely nodded. They walked up an old, overgrown flight of stairs. The broken window was on the top, where the hallway turned right. They jumped out, and the rain once again beat against their skin. This time they were safe from military flashlights, however, seeing as they were on top of a building. Ellie pushed some wet locks of hair away from her eyes.  
"So, have _you_ seen any Infected lately?" Ellie asked, her voice loud so as to be heard in the rain.  
"Yeah." Riley nodded, grimly. "That waas actually part of my... of my initiation ritual, or whatever. The Fireflies need more people, but they wanna make it hard as ever anyway. I had to kill this..." Her voice trailed off, leaving Ellie to wonder. "Know what?" she said eventually. "Just... let's talk about something else.  
Ellie nodded, thoughtful. It seemed as good a time as any to bring it up.  
"Hey, so, maybe I should join the Fireflies? If they need more people."  
"Oh please, Ellie. That was the first thing I asked. Marlene wants you safe here, where I won't get you into any trouble." She seemed sympathetic, which made it all the worse. Ellie was not a sick child too weak to tag along with the big guys. She would've thought Marlene understood that, but of course not...  
"Whatever," she said. "I can get into trouble just fine on my own."  
It was intended as an angry sort of threat, but Riley only chuckled. "Oh yeah, I know. Told her, too, but she said it was better this way."  
The little glass dome atop the roof of the mall was covered in raindrops. Ellie and Riley made their way through the little gap, and down the ladder. The sound of rain subsided, and they were alone, just the way they'd always liked it.


	3. Natural Causes - 3

They made their way across the mall. Riley led, and Ellie followed, wondering what her friend wanted to show her. What she meant could mend their friendship. What she thought would make Ellie forgive her for leaving her behind. "Is it a dinosaur?" she asked. Her fifth guess. "I'll be your friend again if it's a dinosaur."  
"Does a toy dinosaur count?"  
Ellie frowned. "You got me a toy dinosaur?"  
"Nope. But I would if it would make us friends again, you know?" Riley smiled, and Ellie snorted.  
"Yeah, whatever. Is it a spaceship?"  
"Nope. You'll just have to see." Riley hopped up on one of the railings of the staircase they were descending, sliding downwards. It was one of those old mechanical staircases, who appearantly carried people up with them so they didn't have to walk. It was stupid, but kinda awesome.  
They reached the bottom of the stairs soon, and rounded a corner. Ellie had wondered what might meet her eyes. In truth she was somewhat dissapointed. At least underwhelmed. Winston's tent looked the same even now.  
"Man, I can't believe Winston is dead…" Riley looked at the tent for a little while.  
"So you heard?" Ellie held her one arm with the other, idly scratching an old, faded wound from some stupid fight. She supposed she must've heard. Or seen. After all Riley must have been here at least once since she came back, seeing as she had a surprise for Ellie there. Riley seemed quiet for a few moments, and Ellie looked at her, expectantly.  
"Yeah. I heard." Riley sighed, and kept walking. The sound of their footsteps accompanied that of the rain beating against the roof of the mall, making a steady rhythm.  
Ellie had relied on Winston after Riley left. She'd ran away the first day, before realizing she had nowhere to go. So she'd gone to him, and talked. He'd listened, and that had been enough. Ellie had visited him a couple of times after that, bringing him some leftover food and such. Now his tent was all that was left behind. _And Princess, I suppose. _Ellie had not visited his home since she heard the knews._  
_"How'd he die? You know?" Riley seemed more mournful than curious.  
"They say he just fell. A heart attack, or something. Nothing anyone could do anything about."  
Riley nodded, solemnly. She was still walking, now closing in on the tent. "Well, we should be happy. How many people get to die of natural causes in this world?"  
"None that I know of." It was true. Ellie had seen men bleed to death, she'd seen them beaten and strangled, but she'd never seen a man fall over like Winston apparently had. She wondered if it looked more peaceful, somehow.  
"Exactly." Riley did not stop upon arriving at the door of the tent. Ellie wanted to object when she entered, but didn't. Of course she wanted to sift through the tent. They always wanted the same. Riley just… just _did_ it.  
They searched the tent for a little while, chatting idly. Ellie found an old, yet well-preserved picture of Winston in his prime. Riley found a ridiculously large pair of used boxers, which they decided was disgusting, a pair of panties, which they deicded was interesting, a couple of empty bottles and an empty gun.  
Ellie was about to suggest they leave when Riley cheered. "Aha!"  
"What?" She turned to see her friend holding a bottle of something that looked like piss. She knew it was not, though. _Although it smells like it, as always.  
_"Want some?" Riley smirked, and held the bottle out.  
Ellie shrugged, pretending to be all cool. "Sure," she said.  
"Careful then, girl. That's not beer."  
"Oh please." Ellie took the bottle, grinning. "I know what I'm doing." She took a swig, and had no idea what she was doing. It was not beer, that was sure, and she spat it out. _Holy shit, that's bad… _Her previously rain-soaked pants were now reeking of whatever shit was in the bottle. Ellie nearly dropped it, as she doubled over and coughed. "_Man! Fuck!_"  
Riley was bent over, laughing. She supported herself against one of the walls of the tent. "Oh my," she said, and kept laughing. Ellie handed her the bottle, still harking up some of its content from her now itching throat.  
Riley took the bottle calmly. "To Winston!" she said, taking a large swig.  
"Cheers," said Ellie, sitting down on the old man's bed. "To Winston."  
Riley swallowed, a suffering look on her face. "My god… That's disgusting."  
"Yeah, kinda. Don't make me taste that again."  
Riley laughed. Then she gestured for Ellie to get up. "Come on now. We haven't got all day." She walked out of the tent, leaving the bottle. Ellie coughed one last time, wondering how on earth Winston could manage several bottle of that piss, and followed Riley out.


End file.
